Ferris First

I really do not get why people look up to Tim Ferris so much. Sure he’s done some new and unusual things, but look at his site, look at the way he’s done these things. He says, for example, that all the full-time employees of “insertHisCompanyName” use “insertProductName” every day… except, HE is the only employee! It is a cheap trick to get people to trust him and give him money. His methods are based on using psychology to convince people, not facts; just look at the page for his products, on which he has apparently made a lot of money; they are classic internet hucksterism in action. I see a site like that and flags instantly go up. Anyone who has to put so much effort into convincing you that their product is the best… probably isn’t being honest.

Golden Rule Perspective: Does he consider what effect his actions have on others? He won some martial arts competition by exploiting a loophole in the rules. Doing so he destroyed any chance legitimate competitors had to win an event they had trained and prepared for; this competition was important for them. To him it was all a game… gaming the system. Never mind the people in the system.

Justice Perspective: If you are able to make a bunch of money without doing an honest amount of work, you are gaming the system and somebody is losing. Period. If you have not come up with an incredible new idea or innovation, you do not deserve to have that kind of success and leisure, and you certainly do not deserve to have people admire your example. In short, Tim Ferris has found some loopholes in the current world order and has exploited them to give himself freedom and flexibility. There certainly could be a worse person to have such freedom – he has done some cool things.

Pragmatic Perspective: I suppose you need to have some level of this anarchist spirit to do anything important; a leader asks people to do things that may benefit them more then the people who are doing them.